THE civil disobedience it is a concept that determines a form of social action manifested as political protest. This idea brings the meaning of an express disobedience to a certain law, if it is seen as unjust by a certain group of people. It is an action characterized by non-violence and aimed at social transformation.
This idea was first developed by a 19th-century American activist named Henry David Thoreau, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the taxes levied to fund the mexican-american war. The concept of civil disobedience was applied at some moments in history, such as the protests for the civil rights of blacks led by Martin Luther King, in the United States.
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Definition of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is a concept that defend thedisrespect for a law by the population, if this law is seen as unfair. It is a way that minority groups, or those who are not heard in the political process, find to participate in it and, therefore, it is an instrument that can be used by citizens to
guarantee your citizenship.![Civil disobedience advocates carrying out non-violent protest actions aimed at promoting social justice. [1]](/f/874b85aab5c1d5e533f043d5e903a9a9.jpg)
It is important to consider that disrespect for the law is only framed within the concept of civil disobedience when moved by a feeling of search for equality or justice. Civil disobedience is not merely an individual action, but a collective action of a group that aims, through it, to carry out a social transformation.
Therefore, this type of disobedience it's not an act of disorder, since its intention is not to destroy the democratic model in which we are inserted, but to transform it, that is, to reform it so that it guarantees equality and justice for all. Another key element of this idea is that it is applied in a mannernonviolent.
Thus, the social transformation sought by civil disobedience is claimed by an act of rebellion carried out in a non-violent manner. Finally, civil disobedience is a transgression performedpublicly, as its purpose is not to disobey the laws with a selfish or destructive purpose, but to put society's injustices in evidence as a way to fight them.
Emergence of civil disobedience
The concept of civil disobedience is thought to have emerged from a writing by a 19th-century American activist named Henry David Thoreau. He wrote an essay called civil disobedience (Civildisobedience, in English), published in 1849.
In this text, Thoreau states that disobedience is the only path to be taken when the laws existing ones are unfair and when the actions of the State lead the man to commit or to be colluded with actions inadequate. Thoreau claimed a government in which the conscience, and not the will of the majority, determined the course of things, because, in his view, the will of the majority could still be unfair.
![Henry David Thoreau is credited with creating the concept of civil disobedience through his nineteenth-century essay. [2]](/f/263cda738eade444c44bd5428d98e942.jpg)
Thoreau questioned why a citizen should be forced to comply with a law that would hurt his conscience. He questioned institutions like a standing army, because, in his view, the man who serves the army is serving the state as a machine and, therefore, is giving up his own conscience of its values.
In this essay Thoreau also expressed his reasons for refusing to pay taxes to the US government, claiming that they would be used to finance the Mexican-American War, a conflict between 1846 and 1848, in which the United States took over a series of territories that belonged to the Mexico. Thoreau was arrested for that refusal.
Thoreau considered this war unjust, and saw it only as a tool that would lead to expansion of slavery, another institution he considered in the same way. He saw that the only way to combat the injustices of the State, whether in the question of war or in the maintenance of slavery, would be rebel against him.
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Civil disobedience cases in history
The study of history allows us to identify some examples of civil disobedience. The best known cases were those carried out by Mahatma Gandhi, in the context of India's struggle for independence, and the actions led by figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, in the context of the African American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
march of salt
Mahatma Gandhi was known as an activist who used non-violence tactics, known as satyagraha, to protest British colonial rule in India. He took a stand against the discriminatory action of the British against Indians, and sought to combat the abusive taxes levied that left millions of Indians in a state of poverty.
One of Gandhi's best-known acts was his leadership of the march of salt. In 1930, there were a series of limitations imposed on Indians as part of colonization. One of these stated that they were prohibited from producing salt and were obliged to buy it from English producers.
Gandhi then decided to start a peaceful protest that would cross hundreds of kilometers into Indian territory so that people could collect salt from the sea. It was a non-violent act aimed at protest the salt monopolyandthe abusive taxes charged by the British.
THE march, 400 kilometers, it spanned 24 days, from March 12th to April 6th, 1930. It counted on thousands of people who resisted peacefully and did not fight back the violence of the colonial authorities. An estimated 60,000 people were arrested during the protest, but the message against the injustice was clear, and the salt monopoly was withdrawn the following year.
Rosa Parks
In the United States of the 1950s, African Americans were citizens who had no civil rights. Thus, there were places that did not accept blacks attending them, such as some schools, restaurants and stores, in others, white Americans had priority over blacks.
This situation manifested itself mainly in the south of the country, a place marked by the history of slavery. In the state of Alabama, for example, there was a law that determined that blacks should sit in the back of the public buses, and, in case there was no more place on the bus, they should give their own place to a citizen White.
On December 1, 1955, 42-year-old seamstress Rosa Parks, refused to give up his place to a white man when the bus driver instructed her to do so. Rosa Parks was arrested for her act of civil disobedience, but her action was the spark that started a major protest movement. against discrimination inside buses, and gave the force that started the movement to fight for the civil rights of this population in the States United.
Rosa Parks' action and the peaceful protests that started to be carried out resulted in the ban on racial segregation of African Americans on buses, in November 1956, by order of the Supreme Court of the country. The following month, a law banning racial segregation on buses was issued in his hometown of Montegmory, Alabama. To learn more about this important figure in the black movement in the US and around the world, read: Rosa Parks.
Image credits
[1] Diego G Diaz and Shutterstock
[2] Sarawut Itsaranuwut and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/desobediencia-civil.htm